Kook & Son

Brooke C.

We've been relying on Kook & Son for more than 20 yrs. Howard has never let us down, and always treated us fairly, including installing and servicing a combination furnace/water heater. Kook might be more expensive than others (I don't know, haven't checked) but the reliability factor is worth it. I've never been charged for travel time, surprised to read that in other reviews. The service guys are knowledgable and also very reliable.

Gail A.

BE VERY WARY OF THESE GUYS !!!! They will take your money !! They turned up to fix an In wall heater, after 30 min told me that it was Kaput, and would cost nearly $4000 to replace (the unit costs $900 from GE). When I said NO, they billed me for 2 hours (minimum) work which came to $280. THEY WILL TAKE YOUR MONEY !!!!! No stars here, very unhappy. :(

Tom L.

I CANNOT endorse this firm because of their billing practices and must warn anyone looking to use them about my experience.

I booked an appointment with Kook & Son in Jersey City to come to my JC home to re-install 2 bathroom facets in my master bath and install a new facet (plus a new set of flex hoses coming off the shut off valves) in my 2nd bath. They said their rate was $135 an hour which was reasonable to me.

2 service men arrived at my house at 8:45 am on the scheduled day (I was surprised that there were 2 guys for such a small job). During the visit worker No 2 was absent at least 1/3 of the time, and additionally for 10-15 minutes, both workers were also off site as they said they needed to get a part. When they were done just before 10 am I was given a bill for over $500.00!
I spoke to the Howard (owner or foreman) and said ""why was the bill so high"", He replied that 2 men for almost 2 hours (oh yes, they charged for 15 minutes travel time each for these 2 men (that's more than $67 just to come to my house). When I complained he knocked it down to 1.5 hrs but the job still cost over $400.00.

I don/t mind paying a fair price for work but this was taking advantage of your customer in my view. Beware if you use them that you will be paying for dead time or more manpower than is actually needed in my estimation.

Herbert W.

Some people don't mind paying 3x for slightly better service. I call those people suckers. They charged me an hour in travel time each way from Jersey City and also charged an additional hour for sitting in the van to put the invoice together. Ridiculous.

Randy T.

My water heater broke so I found them when I needed a plumber in an emergency. I ended up calling several places and they were the first to come over.

They fixed my water heater and they told me it was a small problem and that they carried the part they needed so they fixed it on the spot. No waiting.

O O.

Kook & Son did work in my house a couple of years ago. After they dug up the pipe line in the floor to the street, we found that there was absolutely nothing wrong with the line. The repair work was shoddy and the ""finish"" work to the floor was even worse. When the basement flooded a year later I found that they installed the connection incorrectly to the sewer line to the street. And for all this they charged me $8,000.

David K.

I advise against using Kook & Sons. They run a travel time scam where they attempt to charge ""travel time"" even for jobs done within Jersey City, where they are based. Charging for travel time makes sense if the customer is asking the contractor to travel an unusual distance to the job. But it makes no sense when the service call is local. No other contractor I have used over the years has attempted to charge for travel time. They claim that this practice is acceptable because they disclose it in advance, but I beg to differ. Kook charged me $35 to travel 1.2 miles (the distance between my house and their offices according to Google Maps). And they did this after I had agreed to change my appointment time so that they could service another client.

Pinrat S.

My husband and I called them to have a repairman come out and see what was wrong with our tenant's a/c unit. They told me they could take preventative measures on it and basically put a band aid on it. It would cost us $135. We had no problem with that.

When they saw the unit they told us taking preventative measures on it wouldn't do much good because we'd need to replace the whole thing. They gave us a quote for $5,450 for a new unit but a low end one. We told Howard that we'd be getting a 2nd quote and he lowered the price to $4,995. We told him we were still going to get a 2nd quote. Later that afternoon we got a call that they fixed the unit and it was going to cost us $950. We didn't tell him to go ahead and fix it nor at any point did he call and confirm with us if they could go ahead and fix it. So now I'm out $950 and it's our word against his.

Bottom line I will not be using Kook and Son ever again and will not recommend them to anyone.

Nicolas V.

Needed a water boiler to be replaced in my apartment in Union City, NJ. Mine was 12 years old which meant it needed to go.
I called three different plumbing companies, and Kook and Son seemed the most reliable (Mind you I based my assessment on a single phone conversation but well ... ). I asked for a price range for my 40L Gaz water boiler to be replaced. Note that there is a premium for weekend service and for non-elevator building. I talked to Howard, the great child of the founder of the company (it's over 100 years old)

I took half a day off and met the guys (2 of them) at the apartment - They waited for about 15 minutes downstairs in their running truck before coming up (Not sure what that says but I figure I'd mention it ...).
They looked at the old boiler, emptied it, brought the new one up, adequately protected my wood floor, were nice and explaining what they were doing. They were pretty knowledgeable and handy.

They came in at around 8:30am and left at 10:30. The final bill came to $1004.

You know that feeling that you are going to get ripped off no matter who you hire?
Give Kook&Son a try, they'll make you feel good

Jeff J.

I called Kook and Son for a problem with my furnace. A technician came out the following day and spent half an hour looking at the unit and testing different scenarios to see what the problem was. He was unable to determine what was going on exactly and suggested I try replacing the thermostat at a cost of $325. I thought that was excessive and decided I would replace it myself. I was then told that I would have to pay $135 for an hour of his time diagnosing the problem (the hour included the half hour it took him to drive the 3 miles between the shop and my house). I have dealt with several plumbers, electricians, carpenters, etc. in the past and have never had to pay for their time putting together an estimate. Be sure to ask up front if there will be a charge for them to provide an estimate.